Too much to do, too little time, no money

Yada Yada, I know, everyone says that. But in my case, I've read every time management book out there, and I use TD religiously. I am a very busy mother of a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Our home is very unorganized due to a natural disaster that happened 3 weeks after my youngest was born. I have been breaking every project down into manageable steps and organizing my priorities carefully. My children need me first, so their needs are top priority. Then, there are basic needs like food and sanitation. Then I try to do a little organizing each day... and to tell you the truth, I've made a ton of progress, but I still feel like it's not enough. I want to go back to work when the kids go to school, but my household is in such disorder beyond the surface, I just don't feel like I'll be ready. And I don't want to put my kids in someone else's care because they are my life focus. What I really need is help to delegate some of our day to day tasks that just eat up my time, but I can't afford that. And trust me, I have seriously tried to work it out. Without a paycheck, I can't delegate. And without delegating, I can't get my life together to get a paycheck. Don't mean to sound like I'm whining... I realize that I am very blessed and lucky, but I'm also very frustrated and searching for a solution. Does anyone have any ideas? I feel like I am busy every minute of the day, albeit very efficiently, but not efficient enough.

I think you may need to make certain you're being effective first and foremost. Then concentrate on being efficient. Otherwise, you may never reach any of your goals. At times we find ourselves feeling that we're spinning our wheels day after day with no clear way to remove ourselves from that regime. And the more hectic our lives become, the faster we spin, but we realize one day that we're going absolutely nowhere. We may be an efficient wheel spinner, but we find out that isn't an effective way to reach any of our goals.

With your two young children, you have basic responsibilities that must be taken care of day after day. As you note, taking care of your children are your top priority, and that is as it should be. Those responsibilities are non-negotiable. Decide what those responsibilities are, and be as efficient as you can at completing them. Speaking from experience, it's important to remember that in the interest of time, we sometimes need to work towards a satisfactory completion instead of striving for a perfect one.

Take your other two priorities or goals, which appear to be getting your household in order and preparing to return to the work force. Set dates that you want to have each completed, and then break them down into large steps, and break those large steps into smaller, manageable steps. Set completion dates for the major steps to make certain you stay on track to meeting your overall goal. And make certain to work towards completing at least one small step each day.

Every journey begins with a single step. And each person's journey is different from everyone else's. The journey may not always be easy, but if there were no valleys, there would also be no mountains.